Ferndale may lack sufficient parking spaces for the downtown but there is no shortage of opinions on a proposed mixed-use development that would include building two parking decks.

“Clearly you can see nobody wants this,” downtown business owner Linda Marchione told officials. “I urge you to stop.”

A Ferndale developer and city officials fielded often testy questions from residents Wednesday on the development proposal for the downtown, even though the project is still being shaped and details are sparse.

The city has an exclusive one-year agreement with tech entrepreneur Jake Sigal that expires in about nine months. The plan is to see whether he and his Ferndale 3-60 development partners can come up with a design to build two parking decks and about 180,000 square feet of office and residential space that both sides can agree on.

On Wednesday, Sigal and city officials wrapped up the fourth in a series of public meetings with business owners and residents to get their views to help shape a more detailed plan for the development. More forums are expected in the fall.

If the temporary agreement between the city and Sigal is like a dating relationship, as Coulter recently suggested, the public meetings have been something more akin to introducing the date to skeptical relatives — many of them determined to remain unimpressed by the size of the date’s wallet.

But covert and outspoken objections are nothing new when a large-scale development is proposed in most cities and the question of a final commitment comes up.

The two main objections voiced so far are that the project is too big and the construction phase will tie up available parking so badly it will hurt many existing businesses. Roughly 40 downtown business owners have signed a letter to city officials, worried that the project construction may put them out of business.

The project would be built on two public parking lots on Withington and Troy streets. The lots are the main parking areas for most downtown businesses and sit behind the businesses on either side of West Nine Mile Road.

Sigal and city officials said they are using all the questions that arise as part of the process of determining whether the project will go forward and how to shape it if it does.

“The concept is to bring parking, offices and residential to the downtown,” Coulter said, adding that the downtown has a parking shortage and the city has been unable to finance a parking deck of its own. “I give you my word that if we do a project here it’s because it fits our needs and is good for Ferndale.”

But most of the few dozen residents who spoke Wednesday appeared to be against the project.

“You’ll change the essential character of Ferndale with the size of these developments,” Eric Blumberg said. “If you put both of these projects in at the same time, I think you’ll lose 50 percent of your (downtown) businesses because there will be no parking.”

Sigal, 33, is the founder of Livio Radio, which he sold to Ford Motor Co. last year for several million dollars. A casually dressed techie, he said wants to attract second-stage tech companies to the office space he wants to build in the downtown.

Sigal and his wife moved to Ferndale from Rhode Island in 2006. Two years later he started Livio Radio in a guest bedroom at his house. He said his goal is to attract more people like himself to the city who are looking to be part of a creative culture.

“I respect that not everybody is going to like this,” he said of the proposed development. “But we’re going to make it as good as possible.”

Residents who want to follow the development proposal or make comments can visit ferndalemoves.com.